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by csiny96
Summary: A sort of sequel to 'Their Little Secret'. Hurt/Comfort/Family/Romance. Established Smacked w/ my charcter's: Isaac & Grace. Mac's first night home after an incident at work & some time with Isaac & Stella. Rubbish summary, but please R&R!


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**Hey! This is a bit of a sequel to 'Their Little Secret'. It's set two months after their second child was born and Isaac's about 3 years and 2 months. This doesn't involve the team though there are mentions of them. It's also not as happy as the one before and it's more hurt/comfort and family with a bit of romance. I started writing this ages ago and decided to finish it. I'm not sure where I intended this to go so it's not too long and it's not great but I didn't know what to put in it. I want to write some more following from that story so if you have any preferences then let me know, you can PM any ideas **** Anyway, please read & I hope you like it. I still don't anything (damn…) so please R&R! **

It was an early February morning and the city of New York was still in a little darkness, the sun yet to rise. There was a bite of frost but you could feel more warmth in the air than a month or two ago. Little Isaac Taylor woke up eagerly desperate to get up and start his day. The past couple of weeks had totally confused the little boy and he didn't understand why people had been upset or worried and why he'd stayed with his Aunt Lindsay, Uncle Danny and his cousin Lucy. He also wasn't sure why when he'd seen his Mommy that she had looked exhausted and had clutched to him and his little sister, whilst she snuffled and whispered that they were both loved very much. He hadn't seen his Daddy since everything had gone weird. Whenever he asked on his whereabouts people would just look like they were going to cry and then they quickly changed the subject, ignoring his question. He simply hated it; he missed his parents and his little sister.

Grace Stella-Eleni Taylor was 2 months old. She had Stella's face and eyes, her skin tone was set between Stella's and Mac's and her hair was a golden caramel. Instead of the tight, intense curls that her brother had, the little hair she had was in big loopy curls, just like Mac's, when he grew his. She was definitely going to be a heartbreaker; much to her father's worry.

In the townhouse that was the Taylor home, there were 4 bedrooms; a Master with an en-suite, 2 identicle sized rooms which were a good size and a slightly smaller room, which was a guest room. Isaac's was decorated in greens and camo colours. He had a dark green feature wall and the rest were a light green. He had camoflouge bedding and his furniture was cream. His curtains matched the bedding as well. He had many photos and pieces of marine memrobilia which Mac had made coppies of from his office. He also had his own things which he'd collected from fleet week. He may have been very young still but he acted older than his age and to put it simply, was Mac's 'mini-me'. He wanted to be just like Mac, even if that meant starting as soon as he could talk.

Grace's room was next door, her room was a mix of creams and baby-pink. Her feature wall was baby-pink wallpaper with white polka dots on, she had a white-cream crib and matching furniture. Her bedding was the same pink and white as the wallpaper. It had small fairies and princesses sewn on with other patterns scattered on it.

The master bedroom was just down the hall and a little larger than their children's rooms. It was painted a deep, warming red and the other walls were a deep cream, with a hint of gold. Their bedding was a luxurious silk, red and gold patterns flowing on it. They had a large king-size oak sleigh bed. It had a few pictures hung on the walls and stood on surfaces. Their was one of Mac in his marine uniform – on Stella's bedside table, one of Stella after getting through the accademy – on Mac's bedside cabinet, and there were three hung above their bed – the one on Stella's side was of Grace when she was a week old, the one above Mac's side was of Isaac when he was also just a week old and the final one, hung in the middle, was of them all a month after Stella and Grace were discharged from hospital.

The fourth bedroom was the least personal as it was just made up in neutral colours and just had a double bed with two side-cabinets for when guests would stay. There was also a large family bathroom upstairs which the two children used. Downstairs there was a large dining-kitchen and a spacious living room, which had large windows and doors onto the back garden. At the front of the house was two similar sized rooms; one was Mac's office – so he could do more files at home, and the other was a snug with a small sofa, Mac's stereo system and his bass. It was Mac and Stella's place away from the kids to just chill and forget about the rush of their lives.

Last night Isaac had been taken home with Lindsay and had been told that his parents would be back when he woke up in the morning and that they loved him very much. No need to mention how eager he was to finally see them. He jumped out of bed and peered through the crack in his door onto the landing. The house was still in darkness but he saw that his parents' door was no longer fully closed, as it had been the last few days, but it was left propped open. He quickly opened his door and padded to their door. He was nervous about how they may react but he missed them and he couldn't sleep any longer.

His nerves built up as he got to the crack in the door and looked inside. He could just slip through the gap and he then tiptoed to the side of the bed. He had to put a hand over his mouth to mask a gasp when he saw his father. He was pale and he had a few bruises and bandages covering his bare chest. The little boy also noticed that he had a bandage on his forehead as well which he guessed were stitches. He knew about various bandages as being Mac's son and inheriting many of the former marine's traits, he had hurt himself quite a few times and been to either A&E or seen his Uncle Sheldon. The last thing he noticed was the large cast on Mac's right arm and a smaller bandage wrapped around his right ankle, which was resting on a pillow on top of the covers. He didn't know the extent of his father's injuries but he could have a pretty good guess that they were quite severe.

Isaac was startled when Mac started to groan. He'd started to get tears building in his eyes but this was scaring him even more.

"Daddy…" He only dared to whisper, unsure on whether Mac was awake and not wanting to wake his parents if they were asleep.

Instead of getting a reply, Mac moved again and he grimaced, letting out a slightly louder groan and then a whimper. Isaac just watched, wary of what he should do next.

"No…NO…_NO! _D-don't die, please…. Baby, please…d-don't die! I-I can't live without you! Baby… _no…STELLA!_" Mac started whispering but it got louder, causing Isaac to take a step backwards. His father's words scared him. Who was he talking to? Why were they going to die? His father only called his Mommy and Grace 'baby', but normally he called Grace; 'baby-girl' or 'princess'. However, Isaac's thoughts were halted when Mac shouted Stella. He was talking about his Mommy.

Stella shot up in bed, to see Mac whimpering and almost crying in his sleep. He'd woken her from her light slumber and she knew that he was having a nightmare. He'd been having these at the hospital and she was well aware that they would carry on for a few months longer before they started to stop. She was just about to wake him up when she heard other muffled cries and sobs. She looked towards the shadows and could make out her son.

"Isaac…" She said softly, not to startle him.

"W-what's wrong with Daddy? Why are you going to die?" He stuttered a little as sobs started to take over his body. Luckily Mac's nightmare had calmed a little and so she could deal with their son first and then she'd wake Mac.

Stella eased herself out of bed and walked towards Isaac and bent down slightly when she reached the end of the other side. He ran straight into her arms and they held each other tight whilst his little sobs overtook his young body and his tears ran like a waterfall down Stella's neck and Mac's dress shirt that she was wearing. She carefully scooped him into her arms. Instead of taking him back to bed to calm down, like they normally do when he's upset, she walked back to her side and sat down, leaning against the headboard. She rocked him until the sobs subsided and hiccups took over, only a few tears now trailing down his cheeks.

Stella was scraping her fingers softly through his hair and placing the odd kiss on his head. The room was almost peaceful and Isaac had almost fallen back to sleep when Mac started to whimper again. His breathing increased and a scowl came across his face. He started to whisper but it quickly increased in volume. Isaac's head shot up when he heard this and looked at Stella worry and concern written all over his young face.

"Mummy…?" Stella lifted him off her knee and put him next to her as she gently reached over and touched Mac's face. The same dream was repeating itself, as always.

"Mac, darling. Mac, wake up." Stella gently spoke his name whilst patting his cheek and shaking his left arm a bit. "Mac! You need to wake up. Mac…" Her last plea sounded desperate and slowly Mac's shaking and whimpering subsided as his eyes cracked open.

"Stell?" His voice was hoarse and deeper than usual. Isaac looked around his mother worried about what he might discover.

"Yeah, Mac. It's me. I'm fine, you're fine. We're all safe."

Mac nodded numbly trying to recompose himself. After a minute he finally spoke.

"I love you Stell. I love everything you've given me, everything about you. I don't know what I'd do without you…" He trailed off as tears started to roll down his cheeks, whilst Stella gently wiped them away.

"Hey, I wasn't the one in danger, remember? It was you." Her soft words reassured him and he nodded once again.

"Daddy?" Isaac peered around his mother to see his father, hoping he wouldn't be mad at him for being in there.

"Hey, bud. You okay?" Isaac nodded and looked at his father who signalled him to come closer.

Stella helped Mac sit up a bit better and put a spare pillow behind his back. Isaac crawled in between Mac and Stella and snuggled gently into Mac's side and cautiously wrapped his arm around Mac's chest. Mac also signalled for Stella to snuggle in as well, as he draped his left arm around his wife and son. Mac gently kissed Stella and they sat there for a few minutes until Mac felt something wet dripping on the side of his stomach, before he noticed Isaac's shoulders shake slightly.

"Zack? Bud?" Mac asked as the little boy lifted his head, blue meeting blue. He started to cry even more and Mac held him tighter and closer, ignoring the objecting pains from his ribs and chest.

"There's no need to cry, bud. It's okay. It's okay."

"Why did you say Mommy was going to die? I don't want her to die. I don't want anyone to die."

"I know, I don't want her to die either, and she isn't. It was…it was just a…a nightmare. We're all going to stay right here, nobody's going to die or leave okay?"

"But you left… and Mommy and Grace. And nows you're hurt and having nightmares…" Tears spilled over the brims of Mac's eyes at the heartbreak in his son's voice.

"We didn't want to leave. I was…" Mac sighed and glanced at Stella who was wiping her own tears away, before he took a deep breath and decided to tell his son the story. "I was injured at work. A bad guy hurt me and I had to visit the hospital and Uncle Sheldon's friends so that I could get better. Mummy had to stay with me and Grace couldn't leave her. But you had a huge responsibility."

Isaac's brow furrowed, like Mac's did. "What responsibility?"

"You had to cheer everyone up, Aunty Lindsay, Lucy, all your Uncles and most importantly, Mommy. You had to be a big brother and be strong for everyone around you, when I couldn't be. You did a great job, Zack. Y'know you held everyone together and you cheered up Mommy and Grace. None of us could have done this without you."

"Did you get the bad guy?" Mac let out a little chuckle; it was quite scary how similar Isaac was to him, always wanting to make sure the bad guy had been caught before accepting any praise.

"Yeah, Uncle Don did." Isaac nodded his head in approval and reached up to kiss Mac's cheek.

"I missed you, Daddy. I don't want you to go away again." He scowled at the thought.

"I don't either. Look, you still need to sleep a bit more and me and Mommy do too. So can you be a big boy and go back to bed? We can talk all day tomorrow, watch films, and eat junk food? Yeah?"

He nodded his head eagerly with a smile appearing on his face. "Can Mommy and Grace watch them too?"

"Sure, bud."

"Okay, goodnight Daddy, loves you!"

"Love you too." Mac smiled gently as Stella followed their son back to his room to tuck him in.

Stella returned 5 minutes later with a content smile on her face.

"How you doin'?" She asked as she settled back into bed.

"Better than I expected. I'm amazed at how well he just accepted everything. Although he'll be more alert and awake tomorrow." Mac sighed thinking about possible questions that his son may ask.

"You're good at making the stories child friendly, Mac. Don't worry about it." Stella replied gently kissing the new scar over his heart, just below the one from Beirut.

"I can't believe how close I came to losing you, Mac."

"I'm not going anywhere, baby. I have too much to live for; you, Isaac, Grace, my Mom, the team, Lucy…I don't want to go anywhere."

"It's just, you were in a coma for over 24 hours, and you were so close to… to dying. We all thought you were a goner, Mac. When…when you flat-lined, I thought you weren't going to come back. I need you Mac, we all do. You're Isaac's hero, and Grace needs her Daddy, however overprotective you may become."

"I know. I know. I was so scared when I woke up, nothing felt real. But with you with me I'm going to be fine in a few weeks. Once my ribs have heeled things will become easier and it's only a sprained ankle and a broken arm."

"How can you say only, Mac? You were kidnapped, for Christ's sake! Almost beaten to death, and then shot twice! Twice, Mac! I-I don't know how you can be so relaxed about it." She cried as juicy tears rolled down her soft cheeks.

"Because I have to be. It's the only way I can cope, Stell. I know that everyone's here for me, I know you're here for me. I just have to try and forget what happened sometimes so that I can concentrate on getting back to normal. We need to get back to sleep. Grace'll be up in a couple of hours."

"Okay, I'm sorry, it's just…."

"Don't worry about it. Goodnight Stell."

"Night Mac."

"I love you, baby." He whispered into her hair before his eyes closed.

"I love you too, darling." She whispered back, both going into a sleep full of happy dreams and memories, relishing in the closeness and love that they shared. Their bond and love could never be broken only strengthened, this event just cementing the fact even more.

**Okay, don't forget to leave me a review, as they're really appreciated! Thank you, Beth **** xx**


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